Wednesday, April 15, 2009

I agree with most of what Jonah Goldberg writes, but I honestly have no clue where this came from:

Of course, tales of Blackbeard and the like have always fascinated, but in recent years pirates have joined ninjas, mafiosos, drug dealers and even serial killers as pop-culture heroes. If we can make cannibals and psychopaths — albeit fictional ones — like Hannibal Lecter and Showtime’s Dexter into sympathetic figures, it’s no wonder we can take a profession historically associated with murder, rape, pillaging and torture and turn it into a Disney franchise.

Now, I know nothing of this Dexter figure, but from what I remember about The Silence of the Lambs and the reception to the book and the movie, no one really considered Hannibal Lecter any kind of hero. Of course that was more than 15 years ago, so my memory may be a little off. But I would really hope that the American people would be able to distinguish the Disneyfied pirates from the real thing, especially in light of recent events. Hell, now that I think about it, I am almost surprised Goldberg didn't mention Hagar the Horrible...

Unorganized Militia Propaganda Corps

About Me

I am a very opinionated guy, Texan and quite proud of it. I lean toward the right politically but have a few libertarian tendencies that my conservative brothers and sisters might not agree with. I like guns, old country music and a lot of other things.

Essential Reading

False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty -- so dear to men, so dear to the enlightened legislator -- and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.-- Cesare Beccaria, in On Crimes And Punishments, later quoted by Thomas Jefferson

Echo

The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.-- Alexander Hamilton